Wellingrove, Station Road

Wellingrove is a house in Station Road Marlow, originally called Wellingrove Villa. (Sometimes rendered as Welling Grove)

The first mentions of anyone residing there I have found were of Lawrence and Mrs Smith who lived at Wellingrove in 1869, who will feature in a separate post on the blog in the future, and of Mrs Jane Townsend who died at Wellingrove in September 1874. She was described as the elderly widow of Joseph Townsend J.P. The couple had married in Hackney in 1827* and initially lived in London where Joseph worked as a land agent and surveyor. In around 1831 they moved to Wood End House at Medmenham near Marlow, the Townsend family estate. After around 20 years the couple decided to rent out Wood End and live in Marlow. This was initially in the High Street. (A post on Joseph Townsend will follow.)

After Jane's death the contents of Wellingrove, down to a library of some 500 books, 35 paintings and a  good stock of wine, was sold across a two day auction held at at the house.

The next known occupiers after Jane Townsend were Charles and Mary Jubber who had moved to the area from London. They were in residence by 1876. Charles previously ran Long's Hotel in New Bond Street London with his brother Henry. This they had taken over from their deceased father. They also had a business as spirit and wine merchants together but dissolved all of their business partnerships in 1873. Long's Hotel was a high class hotel that nevertheless had rooms set aside on the ground floor away from other guests for the use of raucous men who wanted to sit together drinking and gambling after their Gentleman's clubs shut down for the night.

Charles threw himself into life in his new riverside home town. He kept a luxury steam launch called The Plover which he lent to the Oxford University rowing crew's training staff when the crew practiced in Marlow or nearby for the traditional Oxford and Cambridge boat race. The launch was also made available to officials at the Marlow Regatta. Charles was one of those behind the setting up of the modern incarnation of the regatta. He was also a keen fisherman and a fellow of the Royal Zoological Society. Unfortunately of Mary little can be discovered except that she was a Sussex lady by birth. The couple lived quite modestly in Marlow with just one live in servant but they had plenty of money as besides their expensive steam launch they had enough to buy several acres of land near the new railway station. Charles advertised for builders to erect him two semi detached villas on some of the land. 

Charles and Mary left the town for Richmond in Surrey in 1886.

By 1912 Wellingrove is described as a "High School". A northern German governess known as Erna Warnemunde posts adverts in regional press seeking an holiday position in that year. She tells us that she speaks fluent German, French and Italian. The teaching of foreign languages by conversation was a speciality of the establishment. The principals of the school were the Misses Cooper and Farmer. It was a boarding school for young ladies and advertised itself as "eminently suited to girls requiring pure and bracing air". The principals promised to take special care with the girls physical health by means of "nourishing food" and outdoor games and walks. Florence Farmer had earlier coached young boys for entry into Borlase School and both her and Violet Cooper were among the specially invited guests to the opening of new school rooms at Borlase in 1910. 

Undated advertisement from Paton's School Guide, courtesy of Michael Eagleton. 

A later resident of Wellingrove in 1915 was Mrs W Cousin. She was a member of the British Science Guild and the Eugenics Education Society. The latter was later renamed the Eugenics Society and followed a now discredited science. Eugenics could be "positive", that was encouraging those seen as desirable to have as many offspring as possible to improve the future of the society and race which they belonged to, or "negative" which was focused on promoting the allegedly scientifically proven benefits of encouraging or preventing "undesirable" people from reproducing.  Undesirables might include the less intelligent, those with disabilities, non-white people, criminals or the poor. In England the most serious concern was usually that the poor working classes would keep having children! At the time being poor and being a potential criminal was usually seen as the same thing. Whether Mrs Cousin leaned towards so called "positive", or "negative" eugenics can't be ascertained by me. She may have been a teacher in the school. 

By the later 1920s members of the Townsend family again lived at Wellingrove. A Miss F Townsend was one of the same new breed of unashamedly intellectual women as Mrs Cousin but in a uncontroversial way -she was a member of the Classical Association, the Women's Farm and Garden Association, and the South Eastern Union of Scientific Societies.

This blog focuses on the pre 1930s period so I'll leave it there. I will fill in more information about any other historic residents of the house as I find them.

To find more posts related to Station Road or any other Marlow address see the Street index here. Thousands of people are mentioned on this blog. All mentions of each individual can be found on the A-Z  Person Indexes.

*Jane was nee Henderson.

Sources included:

Annual Report of the Eugenics Society, 1936-7. 

J. G. Harrod's &Co Royal County Directory of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. United Kingdom, J.G. Harrod & Company, 1876.

The Pall Mall Budget: Being a Weekly Collection of Articles Printed in the Pall Mall Gazette from Day to Day, with a Summary of News. United Kingdom, n.p, 1874.

1891 England and Wales Census for Richmond, Surrey, Rootspoint.Com. Crown Copyright.

Lloyds List, 1st March 1873.

England and Wales Census for Great Marlow 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 my translation from microfilm. Crown Copyright.

Kelly's Post Office Directory for Buckinghamshire etc 1883 published by Kelly's Directories Limited.

Sun, London. 17th May 1832. Bucks Herald 17th October 1874. Bedfordshire Mercury 19th September 1874. All British Library Archives.

Hornsey Journal,  April 5th 1912 as above. 

Paton's List of Schools. 

Maldah, Institute Road

 

Above is a photo of the house Maldah in Institute Road Marlow. Maldah is a place in Bengal India. It isn't yet clear to me why the house was named after it. Quite a few properties in old Marlow had names reflecting places in the British Empire. We are hoping to write posts on their history to go along with this one.

The first resident I can definitely identify at Maldah was living there in 1898- William Popham, an electrical engineer at a time when electrical engineering was still very new, exciting and marvellous in the eyes of the average person. Though English William was an associate member of the American Institute Of Electrical Engineers (founded by Thomas Edison and Nicholas Tesla amongst others). This organisation had international links and an international outlook. William was connected to and may have worked directly for electrical engineer R.H Barnett of Newcastle, England. In 1899 at the age of about 30 he married at St Margaret's Westminster Rose Hervey. She then lived with her parents in Powys Square London but had been born and raised in colonial India (so perhaps suggested the name Maldah?). The couple split their time between London and Maldah, Marlow. I feel that the latter was perhaps mostly their summertime or weekend residence. It does not appear that they had any children.

Rose Popham was clearly a great admirer of the British Empire. She gave many public speeches in London urging English women to go to South Africa so that British men could find brides there after the South African Wars and was Secretary of the British Women's Emigration Association. She also helped English schools to find schools in the colonies to exchange letters with so that the children could learn about each other's different lives. Whether the foreign schools approached were those catering for European emigrant children or local ones or a mixture of both isn't clear. Rose offered help to any British teachers that were working in Colonial schools who wanted to return to Britain for rest or medical treatment but could not afford to do so.

When he wasn't working William was reading up on the latest research into the Vikings for whom he had a great passion. He was a member of and for while the Honorary Auditor of, the national Viking Club group of enthusiasts.

The couple kept Maldah until 1904 when the house and some of its furniture were put up for sale. After they left Marlow William became a stockbroker. In 1914 he volunteered for service in the Air Force. He survived World War One, not dying until the 1940s.

By 1914 the occupiers of Maldah were Beryl and William Onslow Secker who moved there from Wood End House near Marlow. Beryl had attended a meeting at Danesfield, Medmenham in 1912 of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. This was an organisation opposed to violent methods of gaining emancipation for women. More on suffragettes in Marlow and opposition to their cause see Kathryn's post here.

In 1916 the couple were paying £80 a year rent on the property. That year the freehold was put up for sale with them as sitting tenants but failed to attract sufficient bidding for a sale to go through. 

William was a soldier who had become a successful tea planter at Kandy Sri Lanka before returning to England in 1906 -07 with enough money to need no further employment. The First World War however disturbed the peace of rich and poor alike and William volunteered to rejoin the Army.

In 1918 William successfully sued for slander former Marlow police constable Edward Trim who had, whilst home on leave from military service during the war, spread about the completely false rumour that poor William was a German spy who had been paid hundreds of pounds through secret channels to betray his country. Trim bragged that he had played a major role in identifying and arresting William as a spy. William was he insisted languishing in the Tower of London as a result. Actually William was serving in the army as a loyal soldier. When he got wind of the slander he obtained leave to go home and launch legal action against Trim. The judge in the case said that he felt that Trim had lied because he had wanted to make himself seem important to those he spoke to in the Crown public house and an unnamed Marlow stationery shop. The slander against William was not merely untrue it was highly dangerous. Given the intensity of feeling such allegations would have aroused William's life and even that of his wife, not to mention the security of their home would have been at risk from angry mobs. 

William survived the war. He and Mrs Secker was still resident at Maldah in 1939 when she exhibited a tapestry of nearby Bisham Abbey. Their son Gerald left Marlow and became a rubber planter in Sri Lanka in 1920. 

The Seckers may have been related to the local Wethered family as Alice Wethered, elderly widow of Owen Peel Wethered of Tenerife died at Maldah in 1918.

Our blog focuses on the period up to the 1930's so I'll leave it there! 

All mentions of any person on this blog can be found by consulting the A-Z Person Index -there is a Harry Secker on there for instance who may be of interest. Thousands of people are listed on the index. More posts related to Institute Road or surrounding streets can be found on this index 

Written and researched by Charlotte Day. Photo by Kathryn Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this information for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Sources

Country-side: Monthly Journal of the B.E.N.A. (British Empire Naturalists' Association).. United Kingdom, n.p, 1908.

"England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XW2N-XRK : 16 May 2019), W Vyvyan M Popham, Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

J.A. Berly's Universal Electrical Directory and Advertiser. United Kingdom, Wm. Dawson & Sons, 1900.

Saga-book of the Viking Club. (1980). United Kingdom: Viking Club.

The Electrician Electrical Trades Directory and Handbook. United Kingdom, Benn Brothers., 1893.

Bucks Herald 11th June 1894. Reading Mercury 8th July 1916. Reading Mercury February 11th 1939. Evening Herald (Dublin) 20th February 1918 British Library Archives.

South Bucks Standard. 18th January 1912. British Library Archives, via the BNA.

Proceedings of the Planters' Association of Ceylon. Sri Lanka, The Association, 1907.

"England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:26M8-K64 : 13 December 2014), Beryl Brunton, 1897; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1897, quarter 3, vol. 1A, p. 1005, St. George Hanover Square, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England. 

The Danger Of Fire

 Long clothes and ribbons do not always mix well with open fires and candles. But our ancestors had no choice but to use what to us seems risky forms of heating and lighting around small children or the infirm. From researching the lives and deaths of many hundreds of Marlow citizens of old, we know how often accidents occured. This post is dedicated to telling the story of some of them, but be warned, it is sad reading. 

Deaths of babies and children whose bed linen or more often clothing had come in contact with an unguarded candle or a fire spark were sadly the most common. In December 1892, 5 year old Annie Katie Leach of Wood End accompanied her mother Mary Ann and her little brother stone picking in the fields. Her father Jesse worked as a cowman for Mr Field at Wood End. It rained and was freezing cold, so Mary Ann let the children go home ahead of her to their cottage. The boy still felt cold inside, so tragically Annie decided to try and light a fire to warm him. It was not something she was generally allowed to do and there was no fuel in the grate. So she used her initiative and tried to use a little wooden toy horse in the fireplace. She had found some matches which it is believed her father had accidentally left out earlier. Seconds later screams were heard and Annie come running out of the cottage, her clothes ablaze. Neighbour George Low heard her shouting for her "mammy" and managed to catch the running girl and beat out the flames. He ran to collect her Dad and Mum. Little Annie was severely burned but managed to say "Mammy don't hit me, I won't do it again, I was lighting the fire". The adults wrapped her in vaseline coated linen strips and Mr Field came with his cart to take the girl to the Marlow Cottage Hospital in Cambridge Road. But her injuries were so severe she died the same day.  

An adult who suffered a similar accident was "fancy goods" and toy dealer Hannah Bliz(z)ard. Hannah was a 70 year old spinster, but one who was shortly due to marry - possibly. More of which in a moment! She had lived in Marlow 23 years.  Her premises were in the building now occupied by Sainsburys in West Street, which at the time was divided into small shops of which Hannah eventually occupied the next but one to where the Giggling Squid restaurant is now, which then was the Sadlers Arms pub. In June 1896 Hannah was cooking potatoes for her dinner on a small portable or "bargemans" stove in the living room behind the shop. She later said she had been attempting to stir up the fire when her apron caught the flame. She attempted to beat it out with a "chip of wood" which did not succeed. She had then ran screaming into the Sadlers Arms adjacent, where John Adams who occupied the shop next door (see note below) and a youth passing in the street rushed to her aid. They did the best to put the flames out quickly and took her to the Cottage Hospital in Cambridge Rd. But sadly Hannah died. She had been suffering from poor health previously, and had had a paralytic stroke some time before the accident. She seems to have been regarded as tough, stubborn and independent and had resisted attempts by friends to get her to avoid using the stove amongst other things. At her inquest it was said she had been shortly due to marry. However Hannah's nephew Richard Truckell or Tricknell of Rotherhithe strongly denied this and while he admitted banns had been published to this effect, he believed this was against her will. Contemporary accounts are careful to avoid naming the prospective groom, especially given they were hinting at some kind of fraudulent intent on his behalf. Hannah left her business to her family, with niece Ruth North taking over, so any attempts to gain an inheritance by marriage were thwarted. On the other hand, Hannah was known to do her own thing so perhaps a late marriage was something she did not involve her nephew or others in, hence their surprise to hear of it later. You can see Hannah's grave here. Hannah's executors gave a gift of toys and coffee in her honour to the Marlow Cottage Hospital. Such gifts were the life blood of the perennially cash poor hospital and were very gratefully received. 

Last mention goes to Mary Edwards, who was killed by fire in 1838. While in a "state of intoxication" poor Mary fell asleep with a pipe in her mouth, which fell into her lap, and set her clothes aflame. Severely injured, Mary lingered for a few days before succumbing to her burns. The inquest was held at the Greyhound. (It was not as unusual as you may think for working class women in Marlow to smoke pipes.  I have spoken to someone who remembers walking up Chapel Street in the late 1920's as a young boy, past pipe smoking women sitting in their cottage doorways while working on things like sewing or the podding of peas! He associated it mainly with older women at the time)

Note 1

Hannah had taken over the fancy goods, toys and sweets half of neighbouring shopkeeper John Adams. John occupied the little shop immediately next to the Sadlers Arms as a stationer/newsagent. He had originally expanded into toy and novelty sales, taking on the second shop that Hannah would occupy later. He operated both as a bazaar for a while  before financial ups and downs meant he had to split the business and pass the toy shop on to Hannah. He was found dead in his back of shop living room about 6 months after Hannah's terrible accident. He was 70. 

Related Posts:

To find every mention of your ancestor here use the A-Z Person Index in the top drop down menu. 

Hannah's grave here

Ruth North toy dealer here

John Adams toyseller  here

Patients treated at the first Cottage Hospital here

Other medical related posts can be found in medical section of this index here including the history of the Cottage Hospital and what it was like for patients.